Motivation to clean the house: what to do if you don’t have the energy and how to get ready

How to force yourself to clean your apartment? Every woman, sooner or later, comes a moment when even the very thought of cleaning her mood begins to deteriorate. Sometimes this is due to accumulated fatigue, blues, or simply the desire to watch your favorite movie. But the mess and dirt don’t disappear on their own. What can be done in this situation?

How to force yourself to clean your apartment

A routine process can become easy and quick if you set a clear goal, make a plan and motivate yourself. To force yourself to clean your apartment, you can use the following life hacks:

perceive the process in a positive way;
indicate a reward for cleaning;
do not force yourself to clean things up by force - this method can lead to negative associations;
create a plan according to which the procedure can be performed;
perform cleaning indirectly.

Important! How to force yourself to clean your apartment? To keep the process active, you can designate a small reward for completing the work. Chocolate, a trip to the cinema or some other little thing may be enough.

Why don't you want to clean?

Most often, there are simple reasons behind the reluctance to pick up a rag and a bucket:

Lack of time;
lack of physical strength;
lack of emotional strength.

Often there is a combination of several reasons. Therefore, first of all, you need to figure out why you don’t want to clean the house. And then eliminate the cause. Then it will be easier to start cleaning every time.

If you are short on time, it is recommended to create a schedule of “harvesting days”. This could be 15 minutes daily, as in the “fly lady” system, or 1 day, when several hours are devoted to putting things in order.

If you lack physical strength, you need to try to redistribute the load so that you have energy left for household chores. It is also recommended to reorganize the process itself. You won’t have to think long about how to force yourself to clean if it takes 15-20 minutes or less.

The most difficult thing is the lack of emotional strength. The modern rhythm of life requires great psycho-emotional efforts from a person. The right attitude is important here: create the mood, turn on the music, make the process enjoyable. But in case of acute deficiency, it is better to refrain from violence against yourself. This may make the situation worse.

Possible reasons for laziness

Quite often we encounter a situation like “I don’t want to clean my apartment: what should I do?” Before looking for solutions and motivation, it is necessary to determine the reasons for laziness.

One of the main problems is lack of mood. You can create the right atmosphere with pleasant music, the smell of “cleanliness” and freshness, as well as a beautiful appearance.

Another reason can be considered overwork. Physical fatigue leads to reluctance to do anything. In this case, you need to have a good rest and create a plan for distributing responsibilities.

Fly Lady system

The founder of this method was a housewife from the USA, Marla Seelly. She figured out how to force herself to clean without experiencing negative emotions back in 1999. Now this method is supported and actively practiced by more than a million women and men.

The concept of this method is that you don't have to clean your house every week, devoting your entire Saturday to this activity. Marla Seelly suggested that it is much more effective to tidy up every weekday for a quarter of an hour, and to spend the weekends interestingly and profitably. To complete the allotted 15 minutes, you need to act quickly and set a timer. After his signal, work stops.

On weekdays, the housewife is engaged in putting things in order only in one of the zones. At the same time, she follows a clear sequence:

dining area and hallway;
pantry or laundry room, kitchen;
bathroom and children's rooms, this also includes a workshop, if available;
bedroom and toilet;
living room.

Also during the day, time is provided for performing mandatory “routine” work and 5 minutes a day for sorting out debris that forms on shelves or in drawers. Additionally, on one weekday, the entire apartment is cleaned, when all the floors are washed or vacuumed for an hour.

Followers of the Flylady system especially carefully monitor the condition of the kitchen sink. It is kept perfectly clean at all times. Apart from this, there are some useful principles that apply to all people. Flylady women do not spend a long time at the computer; they do everything consistently and do not forget to maintain a good mood.

Important! To track time, it is preferable to use a mechanical timer rather than an electronic one. Rhythmic ticking stimulates work more effectively.

Sources of inspiration and basic cleaning steps, planning

How to motivate yourself to clean? Prepare for the process, make a plan and determine the main points.

How to motivate yourself to clean your apartment:

move forward in small steps;
study motivational literature;
have a positive attitude towards your own home;
introduce an incentive system.

You can increase interest in cleaning through planning. Determining the main stages and keeping a diary allows you to relax.

Preparatory stage

Preparation allows you to get ready for cleaning and leisurely prepare all the necessary equipment and household chemicals. It is also important to collect large and small debris and wash textiles during the process. By the time cleaning begins, the apartment should be fully prepared so that there are no distractions.

Direct cleaning

The procedure can be performed partially or once. Long cleaning allows you to think about a lot of things and listen to music. A little cleaning saves time and prevents fatigue, while maintaining a clean feeling.

The final stage

A mandatory stage, which consists of ventilating and preparing the room for further occupancy. At this stage, it is necessary to arrange decorative items and create a pleasant aroma.

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General organization of everyday life

1. To prevent garbage from consuming us, it needs to be organized and led.
Often apple cores, scraps of paper and broken pens accumulate in rooms. After all, there is no time and laziness to carry the trash to the trash can every time. Let each room have its own trash can. Do you think that this is not aesthetically pleasing or hygienic? Well, what if the role of a trash can is played by a cute vase on the computer desk? If it is emptied in a timely manner, there will be no damage to hygiene... 2. Cleaning products should be at hand so as not to waste time getting them and transporting them to the place. Shoe polish is where we take them off. Sink cleaning powder - in the bathroom. And the washing powder is at the machine. A beautiful cloth for wiping glass is by the mirror. I have a few seconds to spare - I walked here, brushed off dust here. And half the battle is done.

It seems that this can only save seconds. But in fact, we often don’t even begin to tidy up, knowing that in order to wash the mirror in the closet, we need to go to the closet and get glass cleaner from the top shelf. If aesthetics bother you, pour/pour the products into beautiful small bottles, now there are a great variety of them.

3. The beginning of any cleaning is to put things in their places. You unload everything “non-local” from the room you are cleaning into some kind of basin, and then travel with it around the apartment, delivering what has accumulated to the addresses. There is no need to run with every toy to the nursery. This saves tens of minutes!

4. Horizontal surfaces - countertops, window sills, shelves - filled with objects create the impression of chaos and disorder. Even if all these things are in their own place. In addition, figurines, vases, etc. make cleaning difficult. The solution is to unload the open “horizons” as much as possible. Place the ladle spoons from the kitchen table into drawers, interrogate the figurines with passion: “Are you really supposed to stand here? Or maybe you’re completely redundant?”

5. If you need to store many small items on open horizontal surfaces, they need to be grouped. Let's say a dressing table. Nail polishes, bottles of perfume, tubes of creams, etc. Wiping dust in this case is hard labor. Pick up each bottle, wipe underneath it, and put it back... We put everything in a beautiful basket (drawer, cosmetic bag, etc., depending on the situation). Now, to wipe the dust, you only need to lift one basket.

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Hallway

6. To avoid spreading dirt and sand from your shoes around the house, keep a small brush and dustpan in the hallway. Trampled? They immediately threw the dust into the trash.

7. In rainy weather, wrap the door mat on the apartment side in a damp cloth. Dirt will be better wiped off the soles. If necessary, it is easy to wipe away marks with a rag.

8. To avoid spreading street dirt around the apartment, if not all household members are able to sweep up after themselves, lay a mat-like rug in the hallway. Sand will spill between the rods, but the surface will remain clean.

9. In the hallway, be sure to keep a basket for important little things, the contents of which you sort out once a week. Unpaid bills from the mailbox, temporarily unnecessary keys - you never know what you’ll find in your pockets and bags. To prevent it from lying around at any risk of getting lost, put everything in a specific vase. Just remember to sort its contents. Start a tradition: on Wednesdays I take apart the “emergency drawer” from the hallway.

10. For small clothing items, it is also convenient to have your own basket or drawer - hats, gloves, scarves, etc. are put there after arrival. This is convenient if the family has small children. They, unlike adults, are not yet able to put accessories on the top shelves of the hanger themselves.

Bathroom

11. The cheapest vodka, poured into a beautiful bottle with a sprayer, will help maintain hygienic cleanliness in the bathroom. While you are brushing your teeth and getting ready for work, spray it on the faucet, door handles, and mirror. We cleaned our teeth - wiped the surfaces with a clean, dry cloth - and voila!

12. Store dish cleaning powder in a small bottle among the tubes on the sink. Have you come to wash your hands? Spend another 30 seconds cleaning the sink. You won't need it anymore if you perform this procedure regularly. Moreover, dishwashing detergents are softer than sanitary ware, and they are not so dangerous to apply without gloves (which sometimes you don’t have time to put on).

13. An acrylic bathtub can be kept clean between major cleanings using dishwashing detergent or cheap liquid soap. What's the point? There is no need to put on gloves and then rinse the bathtub for a long time, as after using killer “chemicals”.

14. Quickly wipe the sides of the bathtub, sinks and faucets in the morning, before leaving for work, and in the evening, before going to bed, with a dry cloth. When this becomes a habit, you will have to spend no more than half a minute on it. It is easier to prevent water stains than to clean them up later.

15. It’s convenient to wipe the toilet with toilet paper between times. After use, simply wash it off.

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Convenience, practicality and aesthetic appearance

16. To prevent unironed laundry from piling up, sort it even at the washing stage. Hang clothes to dry, turning them inside out, and hang paired items (socks, gloves, stockings) right next to them. When the laundry is dry, remove it, immediately laying it out in the same piles as they will be in the closet. My husband's underwear is in one pile, the children's pajamas are in another, etc. Distributing the finished stacks takes two minutes.

Cleaning supplies should be at hand so as not to waste time getting them and transporting them to the place. Photo: shutterstock.com

Cleaning supplies should be at hand so as not to waste time getting them and transporting them to the place. Photo: shutterstock.com17. Thin blouses and men's shirts can be easily dried on hangers. If you have time, iron them immediately after drying. No - we put it away the same way, on hangers, and iron it as much as possible.

18. If the bathroom space allows, place a drawer in the bathroom for dirty linen with a color divider. Then you can take the contents in a heap for washing at once.

Kitchen

19. It is convenient to cover the tops of cabinets with newspapers (grandmother’s recipe) or cling film (modern version). Dust is especially corrosive in the kitchen, where it combines with grease. And in order not to rub it off the top of the cabinets, it’s easier to take and change the newspaper/film.

20. To avoid scrubbing the gas stove, you can cover the cooking surface with foil. If it gets dirty, take it off and throw it in the trash. This, of course, is not very aesthetically pleasing, so the method is rather temporary - for a period of severe time pressure (session, emergency at work, etc.) or a temporary loss of strength when the owner is sick.

21. A dishwasher washes dishes more economically (judging by water consumption) and cleaner than a person. Try to find an opportunity to purchase it.

22. The shelves and drawers of the refrigerator can be lined with beautiful rags made of non-woven material. Cleaning will become easier - just change the cloth to a clean one, and the humidity will also decrease. This means that vegetables, for example, will last longer.

23. Cloths for wiping tables, etc. It’s better to have a dozen. Used it for a day and put it in the wash. It is best to wash everything en masse in a washing machine at high temperature. There is nothing nastier than a stained, greasy rag. I don’t even want to take on something like this.

24. A sponge for washing dishes can be disinfected by placing it with the dishes in the dishwasher.

25. You can also disinfect a sponge in the microwave. Keep in mind that the washcloth must be damp and must be heated for at least 30 seconds. up to 1 min. depending on the power of the stove.

26. Colorless soda such as Sprite will help wipe off deposits on a teapot and scale on an electric or coffee maker. Just pour in the lemonade and leave for half an hour.

27. Adhesive tape or a damp dish sponge will help to collect fragments from broken dishes. You should throw the sponge away after use, fortunately it costs a penny.

28. If the dishwasher suddenly becomes difficult to clean, pour about a glass of a strong fat-breaking agent (such as schumanite) into the bottom of the dishwasher (without dishes!). And run the longest program with the highest temperature. Most likely, the machine is simply clogged with grease from dishes and needs to be cleaned.

Trash

29. Garbage bags can be stored directly in a roll at the bottom of the bin, under a stretched bag. When you take out a filled package, you don’t have to run around looking for the next one.

30. If you have a free minute, pull 5-7 bags onto a bucket at once. When the top one is full, you pull it out, and you can immediately continue to use the trash can.

Children's room

31. It’s more convenient to store toys in spacious drawers where you can simply sweep them away. Of course, it’s beautiful when the dolls stand in orderly rows on the shelves. But how long will such beauty last? How much strength is required to maintain it?

32. It is more convenient to store bells and whistles for children's creativity by type of activity. Everything for drawing - in one box. In the other - everything for modeling. In the third - for application. And so on. Does your child want to draw? They got him a box containing an album, pencils, and a sharpener. We're tired, shall we sculpt? We throw everything into the box, take out the next one, etc.

To facilitate and speed up the process of cleaning the house, savvy women have come up with a lot of life hacks. Photo: shutterstock.com

Bedroom

33. It is convenient to store bed linen in sets. And so that it doesn’t get lost, put everything in one of the pillowcases.

34. Ironing bed sheets takes too much time. Is it worth ironing it at all, given that doctors do not recommend it - the hygroscopicity of the laundry worsens. Simply hang your sheets and duvet covers straight when drying, and then fold them neatly. They will smooth out under their own weight.

35. It’s more convenient to stack small things like T-shirts in dresser drawers not one on top of the other, but like index cards - one after another. When pulling out one item, do not upset the entire stack.

36. If your husband, despite admonitions, scatters socks around the bedroom, put him a small basket there. Let him practice basketball, and you take his treasures for washing right from this basket! Only the device for catching socks must certainly be without a lid - otherwise the trick will not work.

37. If you have a lot of flowers on the windowsills, it may be more convenient not to put each pot in a water tray, but to arrange several pots on one tray. Water will continue to flow after watering, and clearing the window sill if necessary will not be difficult.

38. To prevent dust from accumulating there, the bed should either be on a solid pedestal or on high legs - so that it can be vacuumed without problems.

39. If you have to store some kind of goods under the bed (for example, out-of-season shoes, etc.) - purchase a large under-bed box. And store boxes of shoes in it. You will need to wash the floors - it’s easier to roll out one box than to take out 20 boxes.

40. To prevent chargers from equipment lying around anyhow, store them in one place, preferably right next to the outlet. You can use special cable channels or boxes for wires. Or you can use regular plastic baskets from the hardware store.

41. Using large office clips, you can fix the “tails” of the chargers directly on the desktop. And also fasten excess wires so that they do not curl around the floor.

42. Pet fluff is perfectly removed from carpets using the so-called laminate mop. This “lazy woman” has a microfiber cloth with pile in the form of thick noodles.

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43. Cat “marks” on a carpet or mattress can be etched out by spraying the area with vinegar or vodka from a spray bottle. However, after this the room will have to be ventilated to remove the smell of alcohol or vinegar. And if the carpet gets wet, the procedure will have to be repeated again, because the stench will return.

44. When planning an apartment renovation, immediately think about what furniture and materials will require increased vigilance from you on the cleaning front. Even handprints, let alone the slightest speck, look sloppy on glossy surfaces. And corrugated materials require careful scrubbing. That is, the surfaces should be matte, but smooth. Any speck of dust is visible not only on a white background, but also on a dark one - black, wenge. Cabinets should ideally reach the ceiling to prevent dust from accumulating on top. It is better to cover narrow gaps between the cabinet and the wall with extensions.

45. In order not to let something get to an indecent state in your routine, make a list of household chores that need to be redone. And on the page next to it, mark what has already been done. Crossing things off from the general list is not the best option, because there are too many things to do at home - it will seem to you that you are fighting, fighting, and they are not ending... But looking at a separate list of things done, fill yourself with pride for time well spent.

Folk recommendations on how to force yourself to clean your apartment

If you don’t have the strength to clean the house, you can use popular recommendations:

use a mixture of essential oils and soda instead of floor detergents;
You can quickly and safely remove the smell from the refrigerator using pieces of black bread;
Before you start cleaning, you need to clear the room of unnecessary trash - put dirty textiles in the wash, put things from open surfaces in organizers;
to quickly and safely clean metal utensils, you need to boil the containers in water with the addition of 2-3 drops of soap;
To quickly and easily get rid of stains on glass surfaces, use old newspapers or sheets of paper.

“Grandma’s” methods are quite effective; they help get rid of varying degrees of dirt without the use of detergents.

The use of simple and affordable equipment, as well as a good mood and focus on results are important components in cleaning a room. Before carrying out the procedure, you can draw up a plan, define goals and objectives that will correspond to the desired result. If you don’t want to tidy up, but you need to, it’s important to create motivation.

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Motivation

Motivation is an important and effective component that can motivate a person to clean up. Before you start cleaning, imagine how clean and cozy your apartment will be after the procedure is completed. The house will be clean and tidy, things will be in their places, there will be no dust on the shelves, and there will be no hair on the carpets and furniture.

In addition, think that after cleaning you will be able to fully relax in a clean apartment and with a clear conscience. You won't be bothered by the thought that you haven't tidied up.

Be sure to come up with a reward for yourself after cleaning! This will get rid of gloomy thoughts, and you will know that after finishing work something pleasant or special awaits you. If there are children in the house, you will become a great example for them.

It is difficult to teach a child to cleanliness, order and cleaning if you do not clean up yourself. The best way is to clean together. This will bring the family together! Turn a boring process into an interesting game of saving books from dust or a competition to see who can clean up the fastest. Be sure to come up with a reward for each family member.

Remember that the house is a reflection of the owner. Cleanliness will perfectly emphasize the dignity of the room, interior design and design of the house. The things that surround you should create comfort and a special mood. It is important that the apartment makes it comfortable to spend time and relax after a hard day at work.

It is unlikely that anyone will want to relax among dust, dirt and chaos. It has been noticed that order and cleanliness in the house have a positive effect on a person’s mood and psychological state, increases productivity and helps solve many problems.

Cleaning is a great physical activity. It will be able to replace exercises for which there is no time. Regular cleaning will improve your health and physical condition, keep you in good shape and even help you lose excess weight. Scientists have proven that this procedure requires over 400 kcal, which is equal to jogging for ten minutes.

Don't forget that cleanliness is the key to health! Dust and dirt carry germs and infections, negatively affect the respiratory system and cause an allergic reaction. Regular cleaning will help avoid such problems and eliminate mites, germs and other harmful organisms.

Invite your colleagues home

It is worth inviting not close friends, but some acquaintances or colleagues. Your best and closest friends will forgive you for a small or big mess, and your colleagues will wash your bones the next day and discuss all your shortcomings. After you have already been invited, there will be no question of whether to clean or not, the only correct answer will be “necessary”, and quickly and efficiently. Therefore, get up from the couch and get started, because you will need to set the table, which means you will have time to go to the store, and even get yourself in order.